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Northwest College bareback rider Jordan Gill was named the 2011 Big Sky Region champion in bareback riding following the completion of college rodeo’s regular season last weekend. The Trappers concluded the season at the University of Montana.

Gill didn’t place in Missoula, Mont., for Northwest College, but that hardly mattered. The Trappers’ top rider this season had managed to amass enough points through the season’s other nine rodeos that he was still able to hold a 45-point margin of victory in the season standings over his nearest pursuer — Miles Community College’s Brendon Lemmon.

The Powell High School girls’ 4x800 relay team shattered a school record that had stood for 22 years in Cody on Friday. The foursome of Desiree Murray, Kassey MacDonald, Sierra Morrow and Tally Wells carved more than seven seconds off the previous Powell best.

“They wanted to go after it today and they ran it down,” said Panther assistant track coach Tracy McArthur. “Running the girls’ race along with the boys’ helped because it gave them someone to chase.”

After a frustrating season of near-miss opportunities against ranked opponents, the Powell Panthers were in need of a confidence boost in advance of this week’s state tournament play-in game. Pinedale happened to be in the wrong spot at the wrong time.

The Panthers filled their prescription for a win with a one-sided 10-0 victory at Pinedale on Friday. Seven players scored goals as Powell limited the host Wranglers to just one shot on goal over the 80 minutes.

The Powell Pioneers opened the 2011 baseball season in Sheridan on Saturday, dropping a pair of doubleheader games by identical 12-2 final scores. Both games were stopped after six innings.

“It’s the early part of the season and the games were closer than the scores show,” said Pioneer head coach Mike Jameson. “We had a few key plays we didn’t make and a few key hits that we didn’t get. It could have been a lot different ball game.”

Northwest College basketball players Megan Smith and Chantz Ramos were honored on Tuesday night as the winners of the Trapper Awards for the 2010-2011 academic year. The announcement came during Tuesday’s ceremony recognizing the achievements of the college’s student-athletes over the past year.

“What can I say about him?” Northwest College men’s basketball coach Andy Ward asked rhetorically. “He’s an extremely hard worker. We were fortunate to have him in our program. He does so much more than just compete on the court.”

Kyle Sullivan and Josh Cragoe finished 1-2 in the 110-meter hurdles on Monday at the Wyoming Track Classic in Casper. Sullivan added the 300-meter hurdle title as well, taking nearly a second and a half off his season-best time in the process.

The performances were among eight top-three finishes by Panther athletes at the Wyoming Track Classic. The event had been scheduled to be held last Friday, but the threat of poor weather conditions prompted meet officials to push the event back to this week.

Powell High School girls’ soccer coach Brett Hanlin could only shake his head on Tuesday afternoon. He’d just watched his Panthers dominate play for many of the 80 minutes, but fall by a 1-0 count to Lander.

After waiting most of the day to see if the weather would allow Friday’s soccer games with Cody to take place, members of the Powell Panthers boys’ and girls’ teams waited an extra hour after arrival before dropping both halves of the varsity doubleheader.

Powell’s girls fell by a 3-0 final count. The boys were on the short side of a 5-1 decision.

Nearly a decade ago, President George W. Bush stood before a joint session of Congress in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks to announce “whether we bring our enemies to justice or bring justice to our enemies, justice will be done.”

On Sunday evening, President Barack Obama stood before the world to confirm those words. Osama bin Laden, the architect of 9/11 and the person responsible for the deaths of more than 3,000 civilians, was dead. A manhunt of almost 10 years was officially over.

A winter rule change by the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) regarding international players is expected to have a significant impact when it takes effect in two years. Locally, though, Northwest College officials aren’t seeing many changes to the way things are done on campus.